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Emerging diseases - a growing threat in US

This article is one more reason WHY we should keep our body/immune system in
top condition.

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Read on............

ATLANTA -- Doctors in the US must be more alert than
ever for both new and re-emerging infectious diseases,
military researchers said at an annual Preventive
Medicine Conference here on Saturday, which was
sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).

"There are no more geographic limits to infectious
diseases," said Dr. Russell Eggert, of the military's
Office for Prevention and Health Services Assessment.
Troops are stationed all over the world and may
encounter these infectious diseases and bring them
home, according to Eggert.

"Diseases can now be transported from Africa and Asia
to the US by way of commercial airlines," he said.
"And it's not just people who can carry them. It's
rodents and insects inadvertently imported into this
country."

Dr. Gregory Gray, a medical epidemiologist for the US
Department of Defense, said that tracking disease in
military personnel can predict epidemics in the US
population at large.

New strains of HIV imported into the US have been
traced to military personnel. A particularly deadly
strain of influenza that caused millions of deaths
around the world in 1918 was spread to the US
population by troops returning from World War I.

Surveillance of military troops has taken on new
importance with the emergence of drug-resistant
microbes, the researchers report.

The Defense Department, the CDC, and the World Health
Organization are working to improve surveillance of
emerging infections at military bases around the
world. Adenovirus (a respiratory virus), mycoplasma
pneumonia (a contagious disease of children and young
adults), influenza, and drug-resistant staphylococcus
and streptococcus (common disease-causing bacteria)
are especially important to watch, said Gray. The
effectiveness of vaccines and prophylactic
(disease-preventing) antibiotics are also under study.

Despite preventive efforts, epidemics still plague the
military. Respiratory illness is the number one
threat, the investigators noted.

In 1996, 77% of the freshman class at the US Merchant
Marine Academy was diagnosed with acute mycoplasma
pneumonia. Four years ago, the USS Arkansas sailed
into San Diego harbor with the commanding officer and
most of the crew incapacitated by influenza.
Ninety-nine percent of the crew had received the flu
vaccine, but they encountered a new strain in the
South Pacific -- and they brought it back to the US.

"Military populations, by their nature, aggregate
people from around the country," Gray said. "There's
tremendous opportunity for pathogens to be mixed in
this setting, with close contact and person-to-person
transmission."

Surveillance should be used to guide preventive
action, he commented. In the 1970s, adenovirus was
found to cause about 10% of all trainees to be
hospitalized, so a vaccine was developed. It was used
for many years, until the manufacturer recently
decided to stop producing it.

"We've lost a vaccine which was very effective, and
we're now having a number of epidemics," Gray warned.
"Surveillance systems at crowded recruit training
sites told us what happened as a result.... Adenovirus
causes severe infections, high fevers, and
incapacitated trainees. We're now moving to find a new
manufacturer for an adenovirus vaccine, but it will be
4 or 5 years before we have one."


Stay healthy!
http://www.sunco.com/herbs/products.html
Trish


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